After the careful plan was made for almost one month, Bosch-ASIMCO’s supplier development program launch meeting was staged in ASIMCO Anhui on April 11, 2018.

This was the second time that ASIMCO Anhui was selected as the excellent supplier to participate in SD program improvement with Bosch. Ten years ago, ASIMCO Anhui was included in the supplier development program for the first time. The training and the practical program have not merely made the program improvement and returns available for the company, but cultivated a corps of excellent talents for the company as well. Many talents have become the middle-level and senior executives. In fact, the activity that happened ten years ago has provided the soil of lean thinking for the company. Now with the decade-long study and absorption, and the company’s experience and development, the soil has created a large stretch of rich land. Lean production and improvement have secured the deep roots in the company’s production and management activities.

The activity, which started with training and sandbox game, reviewed some basic knowledge about lean production and management, such as seven wastes, standardization, kanban, pull production and value stream mapping (VSM), and organized and unified some concepts and calculation methods. Then the current VSM was designed for 379 gear covers and 259 diaphragms involved in this activity’s program. The activity identified problems, improved measures, designed the future VAM and prepared KPI for all the team members. In the future, the program improvement report will be presented in the team every week, the work will be reviewed with Bosch’s project manager every two weeks, and Bosch’s project manager will give the on-site training and support every month. The program will last for one year. It’s expected that these two programs will complete improvement, the team capacity will be further enhanced and seven value stream managers will be cultivated for the program development of seven product lines.

Bosch Asia-Pacific Region’s Purchasing Director of Plastic Products Mr. Zhang Yi and the company’s General Manger Zheng Jiadong attached great importance to this activity. They personally took part in the activity and expressed their requirements for and expectations of the program members. The Production Operation Director Chen Yonggang participated in the whole process. Thanks to his abundant manufacturing experience and his lean management knowledge, he offered the well-targeted instructions for the program members and shares some practical tools including the use of 5 Why analysis method and the A3 report.

The rich training contents and the fresh form of training ignited the team members’ passion about and participation in the learning process. Every day they actively shared and summarized what they reaped from the activity.

In the current international situation, China’s manufacturing industry faces the huge challenge and opportunity. China has also proposed the development strategy of “Made in China 2025” in the context of re-industrialization such as the U.S.’s industrial Internet and Germany’s Industry 4.0, the lower HR cost and resources cost in ASEAN and Latin America, and China’s large but not strong manufacturing industry. The accumulation process and the solid basis are an integral precondition for the shift from quantitative change to qualitative change. When a solid foundation is laid, the management and technological innovation, together with information-based Internet construction and smart manufacturing, will contribute to the whole process’s best condition. Only in this way can the enterprises get on the fast track in the future challenges, and become larger and stronger.